Cheltenham Champion Hurdle 2025 – Betting Preview
Day one of the Cheltenham Festival is headlined by the Champion Hurdle, which pits the very best two-mile hurdlers against each other for a crack at one of the meeting’s richest prizes.
The 2025 edition looks set to be a humdinger, with the two most recent Champion Hurdle winners – Constitution Hill and State Man – back for another shot at the title.
And with two of the most talented mares in racing also amongst the ante post contenders, this could be a Champion Hurdle for the ages.
But where does the best of the betting value lie?
Cruise Control
Constitution Hill is the odds-on favourite and currently best priced with PricedUp bet at 8/11, with little in the way of evidence to detract punters from Nicky Henderson’s superstar.
Ten runs, ten wins: the eight-year-old has been perfection personified throughout his hurdling career, with three of those victories coming at the Prestbury Park track.
Those Cheltenham Festival credentials were franked in the 2022 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, where Constitution Hill bettered the impressive Jonbon by a staggering 22 lengths, before a nine-length margin of triumph in the 2023 Champion Hurdle crowned the Michael Buckley owned horse as the best in the business.
Illness robbed him of a title defence last year, while a below-par November gallop – caught on camera – suggested that trouble was afoot.
But not a bit of it. After a year of inactivity, Constitution Hill returned in December’s Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and blew the field away; stretching more than two lengths clear of Lossiemouth, another Champion Hurdle who was carrying seven pounds less than the favourite thanks to the mares’ allowance.
A win at Cheltenham in January was rather more eventful – Constitution Hill kicking down the last fence, but thankfully staying upright before cantering away to victory.
Odds-on favourites at the Cheltenham Festival do not always fare as expected – the likes of El Fabiolo, Mighty Potter and Shishkin all failing to convert when well backed in recent years, but there’s just something different about Constitution Hill, who has rarely looked troubled even at Grade 1 level.
Constitution Hill to win by five lengths or more
For reasons that we’ll explore shortly, backing Constitution Hill to win by five lengths or more may just be the best bet of the Champion Hurdle in 2025.
Having a Mare
The second and third favourites in the Champion Hurdle ante post market, Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth, may not even contest the race.
One, or both, could yet be pointed at the Mares’ Hurdle – at the time of writing, connections had yet to make their decisions on that front.
Could either challenge Constitution Hill anyway? The sole defeat suffered by Brighterdaysahead came in her only run to date at Cheltenham in last year’s festival, while eye-catching Grade 1 wins this season come with the caveat that she only beat so-so fields headlined by another Champion Hurdle contender, State Man.
Mares do have a decent record in the Champion Hurdle – Honeysuckle, Epatante and Annie Power just three to have prevailed in the Cheltenham Festival showpiece in recent years, aided by the 7lb allowance that they are afforded.
But even off that mark, Lossiemouth was no match for Constitution Hill in the Christmas Hurdle, while a heavy fall in the Irish Champion Hurdle in February also caught the eye.
The Place to Be
Most bookmakers are offering three places on the Champion Hurdle, with some no doubt enhancing that to four on race day.
So opportunity knocks for some of the longer-priced horses in the field to nick a place; particularly if Brighterdaysahead and/or Lossiemouth head for the Mares’ Hurdle instead.
State Man, a general 6/1 chance, is an interesting proposition for punters as he will secure a profit for each way backers if he finishes inside the top three.
It’s unlikely that he would be able to outrun Constitution Hill and he’s lost twice to Brighterdaysahead already this term, but Willie Mullins’ horse is a game type that has won both the Cheltenham and Irish Champion Hurdle.
He’s only finished lower than third in one of his 17 career starts, so State Man will surely be there or thereabouts in the final shake-up.
Of the rest of the field, perhaps Golden Ace (available between 25/1 and 33/1) is a dangerous outsider for a place. A Cheltenham Festival winner in 2024, having downed the likes of Brighterdaysahead and Jade De Grugy in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, the seven-year-old was impressive last time out in February.
She won the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, defeating the likes of Burdett Road and putting 12 lengths between her and Brentford Hope, who was only three lengths behind Constitution Hill at Cheltenham in January.
The best bets for the Champion Hurdle will be determined by who takes their place in the final field. But if the current declarations hold true, it’s hard to see past Constitution Hill and Brighterdaysahead in a 1-2 forecast.
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